THE NEW 2006 MUSTANG PRO STOCKER
When Ford Motor Company debuted their new Mustang
body just a couple of years ago, the automotive giant intuitively knew the
redesigned body would produce positive results. With an innovative concept, the
company brought together the most popular looks from years past. The body,
which was very reminiscent of the popular 1960’s versions, was a big hit with
both the young and old car enthusiasts throughout the world. Now, with growing
anticipation, the 2007 GT500 is about to be available to the public at large.
With the car growing in popularity on showroom floors
across the country, it was only a matter of time until the new Mustang was taken
to the drag strip. Robert Patrick of Fredericksburg, Virginia did just that
with a new 2007 Shelby GT500. Patrick, whose family owns and operates Purvis
Ford in Virginia, has been a long time Ford enthusiast. With Ford love running
through his veins, it was only natural for Patrick to choose the baddest of the
Ford family to race in IHRA Pro Stock and World Ford Challenge.
When Ford Motor Company debuted their new Mustang
body just a couple of years ago, the automotive giant intuitively knew the
redesigned body would produce positive results. With an innovative concept, the
company brought together the most popular looks from years past. The body,
which was very reminiscent of the popular 1960’s versions, was a big hit with
both the young and old car enthusiasts throughout the world. Now, with growing
anticipation, the 2007 GT500 is about to be available to the public at large.
With the car growing in popularity on showroom floors
across the country, it was only a matter of time until the new Mustang was taken
to the drag strip. Robert Patrick of Fredericksburg, Virginia did just that
with a new 2007 Shelby GT500. Patrick, whose family owns and operates Purvis
Ford in Virginia, has been a long time Ford enthusiast. With Ford love running
through his veins, it was only natural for Patrick to choose the baddest of the
Ford family to race in IHRA Pro Stock and World Ford Challenge.
“Jerry Haas, down at Haas Race Cars, has been doing this body for about a year,” noted Patrick. “They finally got it completed and fortunately we wanted to get another race car. Being a Ford dealer the only other option we had was the ZX2 body which we don’t sell anymore. Ford discontinued it a couple of years ago, so we just kind of held on and waited for the new body to get done and built one. It kind of generates a lot of hype. The GT500 is on the cover of several magazines. People are excited about the car. It’s nice to bring something out that coincidently worked out just when the car is getting ready to be released from Ford and that we got our race car done and it’s a good one, so that is definitely a plus. Everyone’s really excited about it.”
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Haas went on to comment, “I think Ford hit a home run when they brought the new
style Mustang out. They took a lot of the old cars and incorporated it all
together like the ‘66 Shelby car back then, and took a lot of the features out
of all their different Mustangs they’ve done. I’ve always said hats off to
them; they do such a phenomenal job about making a car come back and look like
an old car but still the new modern style car. It all goes back to the ‘60’s
and the muscle cars. They were the muscle cars and the hot licks of the times.
They had to do something with the big three to get sales motivated again.”
With the car built and finished, it was time for the team to try out the new toy. With the World Ford Challenge heading to Gateway International Raceway near Haas’s shop, Patrick had the goal to race that event. According to Patrick, “It was a good deal. They paid a lot of money, I believe it was $35,000 to win and it kind of worked out that the car was ready that week. We went to Jerry Haas’s and kind of assembled the car, put our powertrain in the car, and took it over to test it and ran the race at the same time. We did pretty good. We qualified third and ran a 6.42, at 217 MPH, which we were really happy with. We were able to take the car back to Jerry Haas’s shop on Monday after the race, make some more adjustments to the chassis and take it back over to Gateway and test it again on Tuesday and Wednesday. That is what led up to us running so good up at Grand Bend, I’m sure.”
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With the first weekend of competition a success for the team, Patrick was anxious to see just how far they could go at the IHRA race in Grand Bend, Canada. “With a new car and not running it at that track ever before, we had some good data from last year on the other car winning the race, but we kind of went into this deal blind. We were excited. We were just hoping for a top eight qualifying spot and to go a couple rounds on Sunday, we would have considered that a success. But, to qualify No. 3 and to go to the finals and have low ET of the race, we are real excited about it. I just can’t wait to get more test laps on the car to really find out what it really wants because I think it will be really fast,” commented Patrick.
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“That was the first one we’ve done,” said Haas. “I was real happy with the way it came out, and Robert Patrick, his dad Eli and mom Bonnie were great people to work with. I have worked with them in the past, and to get them out in this first car and go to the first race and do so well with it – he was the car to beat on race day. The car looks so much factory like, it’s painted red like the Cobra GT500 with the stripes and everything on it, I think it’s phenomenal looking.”
Robert Patrick and his new GT500 will be chasing down the Knoll Gas, Torco
Fuel Pro Stock Championship in the IHRA E-Max drag racing series
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